©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia
56 - MIMIZIA
Description
The building is located in private property, between the Academy and the Odeon. One part has been transformed into a warehouse for agricultural tools, the rest is in precarious conditions.
It can be partly reconstructed using the antiquarian plans of Contini (1668) and Piranesi (1781) (who called it Odeo).
There are some walls in opus mixtum with traces of grappa, you can see the floor with imprints of marble slabs and some pillars and -bases for columns, similar to the central hall of the Building with Three Exedras. Another part still standing has an apsed room with a series of niches.
Below it is a cryptoporticus which served as a podium (basis villae), connected to the Great Trapezium with a subterranean tunnel.
Mimizia - Apsed room with niches
Function and meaning
We can only say that the building belonged to the noble quarters of the Villa and must have been in relation to the nearby Theatre.
The name was created by Pirro Ligorio in the sixteenth century, because he found some brick stamps with the name «Oppi Prisci Mimita» but in his Codices he does not give any interpretation of its function.
Piranesi thought it was the place where theatrical performances were rehearsed, with a central square perhaps covered by tents.
It has to be studied and discovered. Excavation and survey needed.
Bibliography
Salza Prina Ricotti 2000, pp. 289-291.